Severe FPS loss with GSX

[Wiss 2]

Hello everybody

I have a problem with P3D v4.5 + Hotfix. It happens to me that I suffer a severe loss of FPS when activating GSX for doing a pushback. My version of GSX is 2.6.0.0.

It happens to me with different planes, such as the QW787, the Aerosoft and FSLabs Airbuses, or any PMDG aircraft. Also, it tends to happen more when using more complex sceneries, such as FlyTampa, Aerosoft or FSDreamTeam ones. It almost doesn't happen when flying from default sceneries.

For example, I can be setting up a flight with the QW787 in the ImagineSim KATL (the latest version). Before calling GSX, I can easily have 60 FPS (which are locked internally by P3D), but after calling it, it can drop to 10. Even after finishing the pushback, with all the GSX objects disappearing, the FPS stay at roughly 10.

The weird thing is, that some time after, when I'm airborne, the FPS fix themselves at any random moment and go all the way up to 60 again. This can happen in any part of the world, so this fix is not caused due to, for example, flying in less complex scenery. Also, I verified that this fix is not caused by flying from a clouded area to a cloudless one. I can be in an area with very dense cloud coverage when this fix occurs.

My P3D settings are medium/high. I have an i9-9900K CPU, 32 GB of RAM and a GTX 1660 Ti with 6 GB of VRAM. The GPU drivers are up to date. I don't use Nvidia Inspector. I use add-ons such as ActiveSky for P3D v4, REX SkyForce and Environment Force.

Any ideas? Thanks

[ols500 43]

I get this as well, thought it was just me...

[Ezra 29]

45 minutes ago, ols500 said:

I get this as well, thought it was just me...

Uninstall it and see what happens. I don`t touch GSX or FSDream Team. I don`t trust them. But that is my opinion based on extensive reading on issues which involve these add-ons.

[Farlis 2,287]

I'm in the same boat.  Something in the updated version of GSX seems to cause this in combination with other factors that are being facilitated by complex aircraft and scenery.

I haven't seen those issues on default airports so far. 

[Shomron 251]

My sim always gets stuttery when the passenger animation kicks in...

[Simicro 247]

3 hours ago, Ezra said:

I don`t touch GSX or FSDream Team. I don`t trust them. But that is my opinion based on extensive reading on issues which involve these add-ons.

+1 Me too I stay away from GSX, Couatl, FSDream Team for the exact same reasons.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Simicro

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

4 hours ago, Wiss said:

Hello everybody

I have a problem with P3D v4.5 + Hotfix. It happens to me that I suffer a severe loss of FPS when activating GSX for doing a pushback. My version of GSX is 2.6.0.0.

It happens to me with different planes, such as the QW787, the Aerosoft and FSLabs Airbuses, or any PMDG aircraft. Also, it tends to happen more when using more complex sceneries, such as FlyTampa, Aerosoft or FSDreamTeam ones. It almost doesn't happen when flying from default sceneries.

For example, I can be setting up a flight with the QW787 in the ImagineSim KATL (the latest version). Before calling GSX, I can easily have 60 FPS (which are locked internally by P3D), but after calling it, it can drop to 10. Even after finishing the pushback, with all the GSX objects disappearing, the FPS stay at roughly 10.

The weird thing is, that some time after, when I'm airborne, the FPS fix themselves at any random moment and go all the way up to 60 again. This can happen in any part of the world, so this fix is not caused due to, for example, flying in less complex scenery. Also, I verified that this fix is not caused by flying from a clouded area to a cloudless one. I can be in an area with very dense cloud coverage when this fix occurs.

My P3D settings are medium/high. I have an i9-9900K CPU, 32 GB of RAM and a GTX 1660 Ti with 6 GB of VRAM. The GPU drivers are up to date. I don't use Nvidia Inspector. I use add-ons such as ActiveSky for P3D v4, REX SkyForce and Environment Force.

Any ideas? Thanks

I don't have any issues with GSXv2.

In your case, I'm going to guess it's because your graphics card or the VRAM only being 6GB, but as I said that's merely a guess.

Can you post screen shots of your P3D Graphics settings please?

 

[Farlis 2,287]

9 hours ago, DaveCT2003 said:

I'm going to guess it's because your graphics card or the VRAM only being 6GB

That could well be. I have the same GPU as the original poster. I shall look at the vram usage when I see it happen the next time.

[simbol 5,819]

53 minutes ago, Farlis said:

That could well be. I have the same GPU as the original poster. I shall look at the vram usage when I see it happen the next time.

We need to see your P3D Graphics settings, there many factors that would affect your performance, your anti aliasing settings + screen resolution + Dynamic Lighting settings, etc. For example using SSAA x4 or x8 + Dynamic Lighting + 4K simulation resolution will kill any GPU with less than 12GB of Vram and very good GPU processors.

in fact I would only recommend using SSAA x 4 + DL if you have an GTX 1080Ti or a superior video card. 

Regards,
Simbol

[IanHarrison 522]

Just done a quick test at  FlyTampa EHAM with TE Netherlands, Orbx LC etc. , with PMDG QOTS II.

With my medium setup (GTX1080, 6700k @ 4.3), using mostly normal settings and DL, and locked at 25 fps, there is absolutely no change in FPS from parked to loading passengers.

As for generalising about FSDT and so called problems, in many years of dealing with them, I have never had any major problems.

Just shows you that in our hobby, there is no way to compare even identical ( on paper) systems.

 

[Pitter 23]

If you have GSX Level 2, try to disable Level 2 via the Add On manager and check again.

Peter

[srcooke 52]

Fully agree with Ian, never had issues over the many years of FSDT product use through to P3Dv4 now.

[virtuali 4,421]

18 hours ago, Wiss said:

My P3D settings are medium/high. I have an i9-9900K CPU, 32 GB of RAM and a GTX 1660 Ti with 6 GB of VRAM.

The weak GPU and specifically the not so high VRAM is likely your problem, which seems to be confirmed by your observation that you don't have much issues with default airports and I'm sure you would see zero issues on default airports + default airplanes.

You must understand that VRAM is not "infinite" resource. If your VRAM is *already* close to exhaustion because of your scenery + airplane + weather add-on, it's possible the added objects from GSX could simply be enough to go from "close to exhaustion" to "exhaustion". The thing is, when VRAM is not enough, the drop of fps is DRAMATIC and sharp, it's not a gentle reduction.

Now that you cannot realistically exhaust system RAM with 64 bit software anymore, the new bottleneck to be aware of is VRAM.

Of course, it's easy to pub blame on GSX, just because you called it last, when the rest of VRAM memory-consuming stuff (airport, airplane, background scenery, weather engine clouds, AI ) was *already* loaded and might have been barely able to it the card VRAM. Adding a bit more, and you cross the threshold between being able to fit everything in VRAM or not, which will cause the sharp drop in fps.

Your system is not very balanced, because you have an insanely good CPU, enough system RAM, but with an average GPU with not so much VRAM ( some entry level cards have 8GB ), so your CPU is wasting cycles just to wait for the video card to finish its job and, the moment you exhaust VRAM, fps will collapse.

I'm sure a better GPU with more VRAM, like the 1080ti, which is still the best card ever made by nVidia or the new Radeon VII with 16GB, will do wonders with your system.

In any case, here's a video I just made, show ZERO fps loss by GSX Pushback:

The place it's FSDT KIAH, with the PMDG 737, with Ultimate Traffic Live at 100% density. The PC it's a stock i7-6700 (4 years old CPU), with 32GB and an nVidia 1080 Ti 11GB.

Note there's a small fps drop at about 1:00 minute, but that was caused by having used 4x time acceleration because I didn't want to wait too much for the APU to start, so it doesn't count.

As you can see, I also purposely panned the view several times, both to show the high number of AI, and to show GSX doesn't cause ANY stuttering, not even while it's pushing, and 100% AI is the most demanding situation which could lead to some stuttering. But there wasn't any here.

It's clear that GSX doesn't have any visible fps effect per se, even when used with a detailed add-on airport, with heavy traffic and with a detailed airplane add-on but, of course, depending on your system, you might have to adjust some of the settings.

The settings that affects VRAM consumption the most are:

- The overall resolution. I use 2560x1440.

- The overall max texture size. I set it at 4K, because with 11GB of VRAM, it's no big deal

- The antialiasing settings. I never set this too high, 2x with FSAA it's enough for me

- The shadow quality. Mine was set to maximum.

[Farlis 2,287]

5 hours ago, simbol said:

We need to see your P3D Graphics settings, there many factors that would affect your performance, your anti aliasing settings + screen resolution + Dynamic Lighting settings, etc. For example using SSAA x4 or x8 + Dynamic Lighting + 4K simulation resolution will kill any GPU with less than 12GB of Vram and very good GPU processors.

in fact I would only recommend using SSAA x 4 + DL if you have an GTX 1080Ti or a superior video card. 

Regards,
Simbol

I'm very conservative with my settings, because I have basically switched to flying almost exclusively VR.

I balanced my settings out so that I would get 30-40FPS in most scenarios.

My AA is set at 4xMSAA, the resolution at 1920x1080. 

Shadows set to ultra and switched off for external vehicle and simulation objects. Vegetation shadows only set to receive. Dynamic lighting is on and reflections set to medium.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Farlis

[Farlis 2,287]

1 hour ago, virtuali said:

Of course, it's easy to pub blame on GSX, just because you called it last

It's also specifically easy, since this issue did come up immidiately after the recent update. I fly big iron most of the time and therefore was very familiar with GSX and how it performs on a daily basis on my setup. That has changed with the update. Considerably.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Farlis